99 Must Know Chinese Words Phrases For Beginners

I'm pretty fluent in Mandarin but if I had to start over I'd begin with these 99 words and phrases because they're the most practical—they’ll get you speaking right away and help you chat about simple topics building your confidence on the path to true fluency which is the essential first step If you like my video keep listening and you'll soon grasp and use these words accurately even without time By the way if you like all these words click the link below the description to download a great PDF from this video plus high-quality studio tracks for both male and female voices so you can keep practicing right now You can instantly access all the information just by checking your email Let's begin with a very common and simple word: hello Hello it's you you're good let's go together you're doing well This is probably the most common way to greet someone in Chinese But if it's someone you're close to like your wife a good friend or someone you see often you might say hello The Chinese word for goodbye is goodbye This phrase is as common as saying hello to you Like saying "hello " I don't use "goodbye" with people I'm very close to or see regularly—I just say goodbye So saying goodbye over the phone with my wife might feel a bit strange But I'll say goodbye properly to the people I see every day like the staff at my shop or the kitchen crew things like that When it comes to shops kitchens and everyday life there are many words you'd use—thank you This is the fourth and fifth notes thank you In Chinese there are many ways to express gratitude but "thank you" can be used in any situation Apply it to your wife your husband and the person you just met It can express gratitude anywhere Sometimes you can even translate it as thank you When you say thank you you should expect the other person to respond with you're welcome Chinese has many ways to express gratitude and my favorite—perhaps the most common—is simply not saying thank you Another way to express gratitude in Chinese—perhaps the most common—is to say "don't be formal " Being courteous means not being courteous so please don't hold back Being courteous means the energy of a guest So don't carry a guest's energy—bring a friend's energy Among friends there 's no need to say thank you That's exactly what you're trying to express Next we delve further into a word we've already brushed past—the first one hello Hello hello We enter into this character this word Its meaning is simply good If anyone asks you what you'd like to do or where you'd like to go or what you want to do just say yes Remember to use full tone low tone high tone and the third tone Okay So when you say this you're not just saying yes—you're also saying yes I agree So if you want to say no you just need to add a not at the beginning So no we've already covered it You're welcome no need for thanks So no it's just denial It simply means no or doing nothing at all So that's not good Or if you speak too quickly it might sound unpleasant Unpleasant So let's keep developing this word and another one you can always use when saying sorry But for less serious matters you'd always use this word to say sorry—like when you want to pass someone on the street or borrow a chair from a table Sorry Excuse me Not good or bad Not good Meaning So meaning means meaning So you're saying it has a negative connotation So it's kind of like oh I'm a little embarrassed by this situation That's how you're expressing regret for example you could say Sorry my Chinese is bad Even if your Chinese is not bad you can sort of add this in at the beginning of an interaction And it will lower expectations Also because face is so important in China when you somewhat downplay your own achievements it actually puts you in a stronger position It makes people really like you Now I'm not saying you should make fun of yourself all the time obviously but if you're ever just a little shy or unsure about something like the Chinese you can always just come out and say it and Chinese people will be very very understanding No no your Chinese is fine You're doing great They'll be very encouraging about it Now using 好 we can actually introduce a way in Chinese by asking yes or no questions using the phrase 好不好 So good not good literally when you say good that is a way of asking Is it good yes or no And it's a really common way of saying Are you up for this Are you willing to do something Or does that sound good For example Let's go play at the park together okay So you're making a suggestion we together go to the park and play So it's basically saying Let's go to the park together and hang out Does that sound good Shall we go to the park together okay So one last little thing about the word "good" before we move on Good is an adjective It describes things right Just like with descriptive words in Chinese or any language you can place other words before it to modify its meaning So let's go over a few of those really important ones right now and these will come up many more times throughout the video and your entire journey with Chinese of course Very good very good That means very good Now if you ever said to someone my Chinese is not very good then a very common response to that would be your Chinese is very good Your Chinese is excellent Now that might be a bit exaggerated right They're just trying to make you feel better But there are a few other layers to what "good" really means which when you hear it are generally not going to be fake So if you ever hear someone describe your Chinese as really good That's not likely to be fake Or even better super good that's genuinely authentic If you ever reach that level which I'm sure you'll achieve at some point so go ahead and pat yourself on the back because you've done really well Let's move on by introducing a new word and a few more phrases associated with it Do you speak English You can or know how to speak English You know how to speak English Do you know how to speak English Now "know how to" means to have the ability So it's used for skills you've learned such as can you swim Just like is it good Now that huh is another way of asking yes-no questions Can you speak English Yes or no Let's have another example Can he or she swim He and she and it are all pronounced the same but with different characters So we've technically learned ree extra words there And now of course to answer yes or no to questions like these you'd simply do the same thing as we did earlier Can you swim No Do you speak English Yes And we could apply this to Chinese as well as English right So if you've just arrived in China and since you haven't had much time to practice the language yet you could say sorry I don't speak Chinese This is what Chinese people are like: when you put yourself in a vulnerable position like that and admit your problems or issues publicly they will immediately Try to save face for yourself And they’ll say It’s okay or No problem No problem literally no relation as in at's not connected with anything don' t worry about it no problem literally no problem I prefer to say it's alright Another thing you might want to say f your Chinese isn 't that strong you might say 听不懂 which literally means "listen no understand " 听不懂 不好意思 我听不 懂 Please speak slowly—请 means please slowly means slowly speak means speak please speak slowly so can here means can as in able to or have permission to do something and we're using that yes/no question structure aren't we Could you say that again Again here is just exactly the same one as goodbye again so we're saying can you say it again once more which means one time can you say it one more time Here's another way to ask someone to do something—so "could you possibly" is a great way to do it even before making any request though it's a slightly more polite version might be trouble you literally to trouble you you is you trouble means to trouble or cause a nuisance for someone Please speak more slowly saying "speak slowly" will be something you use constantly in daily life in China now let's say you ask someone o speak slowly and if they speak a bit too slowly you might say too slow with too followed by an adjective a describing word and then followed by le basically means that thing so 太 慢了 means too slow 太辣了 means too spicy so you might say too spicy you'll be needing that one f you go to Sichuan province in China where I lived for nearly ten years now interestingly if you use this structure this "too much" structure good it's not that good this is too good I don't like it obviously that just sounds ridiculous doesn't it because how can you really have too good but what it means is excellent awesome amazing so great someone' s prepared a meal for you so grea and other positive adjectives often function in a similar manner such as so cute all right now let's begin introducing some key question words This is how you begin engaging with people and having basic conversations—by asking questions So a very important question we want to ask is how How is a very common phrase at you'll be using in association with this word most likely how to say so how to say for example you might have a cup here whatever it is point to it and just say how do you say this in Chinese so that's something I still personally use now when interacting with Chinese speakers and you can also use a similar phrase well how should I put it so this is a great phrase to use not when you're genuinely stumped but when you're trying to say something and you just need a few milliseconds or an extra half second or so to come up with what to say next and it's one of the many filler phrases like that at you can use to fill that space and give you a bit of extra time so you could say well how should I put it more practically you could say a place you want to go or just hold up your hand—well we don't use business cards these days do we but it would be like pointing to a spot on your phone and saying "How do I get there " or literally how to get there now this zǒu is interesting because it means several things depending on the context so in this context it means to get somewhere I want to be able to get somewhere for example a supermarket how to get there but it can also be about leaving in fact that's probably the most common way of using it let's go let's leave so if you've just had some drinks or you finished a meal alrig Here’s the suggestion particle just add it to the end of something to make it a gentle suggestion and of course you can simply say "let’s go " I'm off— it's always polite in China to signal the end of a conversation I guess it's the same in England anywhere else in the West but generally speaking you want to sort of announce that you're leaving even though you don't really want to so you'd say "I'm off " which is a gentle way of wrapping up a conversation with someone ow it wouldn't be a proper Chinese lesson if I didn't teach you how to say this and that in Chinese so this one or that one particularly is this this ow in spoken Chinese you usually say this—it's the same exact character but it's just a more casual way of saying it both are acceptable this is fine but it's just more comfortable to say this now in Chinese is tha but again we would say with more of an "a" sound in casual spoken speech that so that one how do you say this in Chinese this one or I like that one I like that if someone 's not clear which one do you mean they might ask which one literally it's just changing the tone and you can also say ow let's take the word how in Chinese and expand on it a bit more with some super common words and phrases that you 'll be using every day so how about it literally how does it look or how does it appear or essentially what is it like when someone is holding up some clothes or something they just made or something they're just showing you they might say how about it like it what do you think do you like it now we can also bring in the word as we learned earlier " toogood" literally means " no too good " "not too good " or "so not too good " I'm not that fond of it you could simply add it at the end of a suggestion of some sort so you can say something that you' re suggesting you want to do and then just say how about it and it's sort of serves the same function as 吧 as we learned earlier how aboutwe eat a meal together[-] completely different grammar from English in that case let's have dinner together how about it one last really common one you 're going to want to learn with how about ow about something how is something is recently how's it going literally the most close those are the two character meanings and the meaning of that word recently means how have you been how are you it's a great way of asking and they could say very good thank you how would we say that and then following that they may very well say how about you you s one is a very common way of kind of reflecting a question back at someone so I think the word how and all its related awesome words are now very well covered let's move on to another very common question word where —so if you wanted to ask where you are in Chinese we flip it around so we say you are where or where are you and by the way that in is a different in Goodbye it doesn 't mean goodbye again this one is a different character which means located it's not really translatable into English We don't use it that way in English—it's just one of those many things you have to accept as different about the Chinese language so maybe someone's on the phone trying to find you in a restaurant saying where are you and you see them and you'd say I'm here or I'm here again where both exactly the same it's just one has a sort of casual slash northern Beijing a slight twang to it and the other one doesn't now maybe that person joins you at the table and you're supposed to be meeting with another friend and your friend isn't here they might ask what about your friend your friend that one we just learned in you ow about you just tack it on at the end of something like that and it asks what about that previous thing your friend and then you see that friend Come in and you say where is she She is there so think about it like this: where is kind of a down -up third tone or nǎr it's somewhat a question but nǎlǐ is a fourth tone it's like there it's assertive I know the answer to this—it's a statement that's how I recall it now using this that we've learned this located character that we use in where ere or there here there this is not only used to describewhere things are but also used to describe where things are time so if you wanted to ask what are you doing as in right now what are you up to you would say you located here at this moment right now doing what are you doing and they might say now if they're drinking tea or eating a meal ey might say I 'm drinking tea or I'm eating eating now we've moved on to what or what let's cover a few more what phrases what do you do for a living [-] [-] [-] [-] [-] [-] [-] [-] when you've just started out with Chinese just to look up what your profession is in Chinese so you can simply say it because you'll be asked This question comes up a lot of courseright You what work I'm a teacher now Another very common phrase is you'll be asked this all the time: what is your name and to say this in Chinese is: 你叫什麼名字 you called what name it's kind of a complicated phrase for something so simple isn't it and then to answer this you would simply say My name is Luke and now that we're on the subject of really common phrases you'll be asked this all the time—got to cover this one which is: you are which country are you from you are from which country where are you from which country and that don't worry about it it's going to get complicated rying to explain its grammar it' sessentially asking which country you belong to and to answer you'd say I am country eI ' mBritish American etc those are the questions that you would get asked a lot once you first meet someone but Once you get to know someone perhaps at the next or third or fourth meeting you might be asked the following questions which indicate that you're growing closer in the relationship so ey might ask you have you eaten this is something I'd say to my neighbors the ones I see every day even my mother-in-law people who are very close to you or those who aren't quite as close but people you recognize you know you'd see them and say ah I know you now ere's no special answer to this except to simply tell the truth— did you eat or not if yes say "I ate " and if no say "I didn't " Not yet now you can also throw not have at the end to make yet another way of asking yes no questions so you could just say have you eaten it's exactly the same way now all this talk of eating and food is genuinely getting me hungry right now I haven't eaten yet today I'm really hungry so I'd actually like to tell you right now that I'm starving I'm hungry it's always struck me as funny that the Chinese word for hungry sounds remarkably similar to the noise we make when we're about to be sick Hungry I'm hungry so if you're hungry you probably want to eat which we've already covered right and to express that desire you might say I would like to eat something I want to eat something " want" here literally means I have the desire "something" means something and then so f you say that to a Chinese friend they might ask you another question which is what would you like to eat or ey might ask you where would you like to go to eat go where eat go where now f you're very lucky they might also add at the end I invite you or I invite you please we've already covered it means but it also carries another meaning when used as a verb here like an action word to mean treating someone so I'll treat you or 's my treat you say I'll buy for you which is an incredibly common way of repaying a favor in China where food is really important now let's learn a few more phrases related to food since eating is something we have to do every day several times a day usually so let's talk about what you'd actually do once you're with your friend at the restaurant is use phrases like these so you'll walk o any restaurant in China they' ll most likely ask you the same question every time—how many which is the measure word for guests at a hotel or a restaurant andyou 'll say how many people there are one person or two now the number two in Chinese is but you wouldn't say two people you would just say two two is like a measure word for two of something we don't have time o get into measure words right now maybe in a later video so don't worry about the grammar right now understand why things work the way they do how things wor e way they do it just listen and repeat—that’s the perfect way to start learning Chinese or any language now depending on what time of day it is you might be wondering whether they have any beer in which case you can ask do you have cold beer you want to ask if they have it or not so it's very important to add on ice which means cold beer because I know It's almost blasphemous to say but yes it's quite common in China to be served warm beer now I think the reason this is a thing is s terrible thing is a common belief in China because in Chinese traditional medicine drinking cold things can often be harmful so cold beer is something to be avoided you have to specifically request it just make sure they' re going to serve you cold beer before you pay for it and they open it all right now most places will naturally serve you cold beer but there are still a few places that will just hand you a warm one sir and not think twice about it—it's crazy I know but it' s just the way it is so do you have cold beer and if they want to say yes how would they say yes we do have if not they would say once they do have you might say two cups yes ere's another way of saying want two glasses two glasses is a glass and we're adding the bar here to sort of add that idea of oh maybe I'll take two then you know just a bit more casual kind of a laid-back tone to it two please and then you might say Also I still want this and that pointing at the menu and saying this or that that It's a great way to bypass the challenge of memorizing all the different Chinese dish names which can take a long time to get used to Now we first heard it in this video when we introduced the words too good or too slow—this way of saying too much of something or really something But the most common meaning of 了 is the one we saw in 我餓了 I'm hungry —so that 了 essentially indicates a change or completion of something So I don’t want it anymore even though I did earlier or maybe I wasn’t hungry before but now I am—something’s changed I'm done with it—it's as if something has been completed or brought to an end I'm done thank you And then after you've finished eating all this lovely food You might say I'm full I'm full which means I am full and that's usually the time to leave the restaurant Get the check and leave So you'd say "Waiter " Those three characters mean waitress — and it sounds really rude doesn't it Just saying waitress or waiter or literally service person — it sounds really rude but actually it's not Especially if you've got a nice smile on your face Waitstaff buys the check Literally buy the bill 買單 pay the bill Now I think it's a good time to introduce a very common question word Which you'll be using in restaurants and when shopping Out and about a lot on a daily basis And that's how much in Chinese Which literally means a lot a little or how much But the most common phrase you've probably heard is how muc And how much is it So if you go to pay the bill or you're in a market And you want to buy some fruit or vegetables Once you've got everything you want How much does it cost Nowadays Chinese people often To make this phrase a bit easier to say They'll shorten it slightly Instead of saying how much does it cost How much It sounds strange but say it quickly and you'll understand why they do it— because it's easier to say It's a bit more cumbersome Even for native speakers it's kind of the same thing— that's why we say "I don't know" instead of "I don't know " we say "I don't know " It's just a way of shortening things to make spoken Chinese easier—so maybe you're at a restaurant or at a market and you want to get the owner's attention Usually it's the owner of the store or if you 're in a very small restaurant you might say "boss " bananas how much And they might ask you how many — that's the word we learned earlier — for how many — that's used for small numbers usually one to ten — they would ask you how many And if it's more than ten they'd ask you how many or how many of them—you might say "I'll have five " or "I'll take five bananas " and then they 'd say something like Ten yuan total Yes buying fruit in China is really really cheap Another phrase is hurry over Look at this hurry over Hurry up is 快 or fast Come here look at this Take a look at this or look at this Come over here and see this Now this guo means to cross As in to move across something So it's often used to describe Crossing the street Literally "horse road" That's the original term for road in China Someone is crossing the street Especially if you have young children Which I do And I'm always saying this word You'd say xiao xin or little heart Little heart xiao xin Which means be careful Xiao xin dian a Meaning be even more careful Or a little more careful And you could also add an "ah" at the end which makes things even softer and more pleasant almost like a tender tone For example "Be careful ah " Or "be careful" is fine But if you say "be careful ah" That little "ah" at the end Just makes it more affectionate Now this "guo" It's also used as an experience marker—basically you place it after a verb to indicate that an action has been completed or experienced And it conveys the idea that I've done this verb before For example have you eaten this before And you can also use that in terms of For example Have you been here before And you would say "been" If the answer is yes And never been there If the answer is no Have you seen it Have you seen this movie I haven't been there but I'm going I want to go Now with the rest of the phrase in this video Let's just focus on wrapping up All the major question words So we can interact with Chinese speakers more easily We've already covered how How about where Which time How much How about when To say when You would just say what time What time Time what time When do you want to go to China Go to China I bet you can guess what I'm getting at—when would you like to go to China When do you want to go to China So that's when Here's how to say why And it also involves the word what — wèi meaning for the sake of — so why does " for the sake of what" in Chinese wèi shénme almost sound Shakespearean doesn't it For the sake of what have you done this That's a common question you'll be asked: Why do you like China And a common answer by the way is because —literally "for the sake of"—because means because in Chinese because Chinese food is delicious Chinese food is delicious Chinese people are friendly and Chinese culture is interesting Let's move on to the final major question word of today's basic Chinese 99 phrase video Who Now some Chinese people In certain regions of the country For whatever reason pronounce this 誰 I don't know why Both are acceptable But by far the most commo And the one you should really use yourself is probably who — he or she is who — so you might see a new person and think who is he or she And then you might ask the person "Do you know him or her " How would they answer yes They would take the word "know " Meaning to know Let's repeat it back — Recognize Or Recognize ya That "ya" is kind of like a Yeah de Yeah I know that person It's more of an exclamation really—so they might say "We' ve known each other for ten years " and that "le" at the end indicates completion or a change It's like saying up until this moment we've known each other for ten years now speaking of meeting people if you 've had a conversation maybe you've used a bunch of those phrases You've learned in this video how to chat with someone want to end the conversation and it's time to leave —you might say "Nice to meet you " Nice to meet you happy to get to know you either way works well—means the same thing whether it's meeting for the first time or already knowing you And it's so nice to meet you So finally here's a phrase That you'll always want to use Whenever someone is leaving your house Or they're leaving somewhere where you are It doesn't have to be your house—could be a restaurant you' re both at—but they're leaving first They say "We're going" or " I'm leaving " and then they just walk away You could say "slow go" — literally " slow leave" — you want to try and always say this even with people close to you it works for everyone young and old It's just really nice to do so when they go to leave just say "Take care " and you can even add "ah" at the end like we learned earlier— "Take care ah " By the way If you'd like all the phrases from this video in a neat PDF complete with studio-quality male and female audio for on-the-go practice just click the link in the description And download right now All you need to do is enter your email And you'll get access to everything immediately Alright now I want to give you Five bonus words and phrases That are extremely common That was kind of hard to find a place for but you definitely want to know it and you'll be using it every single day as you're in China So the first phrase is "long time no see " Long time no see — and that's where this phrase comes from In English it's a direct translation from Chinese obviously very common when greeting someone you haven't seen in a while And that could be relative—so if you're used to seeing someone every day and then suddenly they disappear for a month or a few weeks you'd say "long time no see " Likewise it applies to people you haven't seen in years—either way another great one is "Jiāyóu " which literally means "add oil " but is hard to translate precisely however I truly believe the best rendering is You've got this you can do it That's the kind of energy So that's how you'd cheer someone on If you're say watching a football match Or someone boxing in a ring or anything like that So jia you But you know if someone's struggling or working on something tough it' s a way of gently encouraging them and it's a very common phrase to use Another phrase that's a bit tricky to translate is "knowing it now"—literally "I know now " You'd use this whenever someone shares information with you like saying "got it " It's actually quite close to that— we don' t usually say "got it" that much in English we just say "okay" or "yeah no worries " When someone tells you some information in China It's just common to say Yeah I know I know now 知道了— that's what the 了 is doing it's like completing it or shifting that idea so I didn't know now I do So bonus phrase number 4 is "My goodness " which literally means "my god" or "good heavens " and we use it in the same way we use "good heavens" in English Oh my goodness something's happened —just a little crazy unbelievable or difficult My God And then finally drinking culture is huge in China Chinese people especially those in the north can really drink seriously and you'll need to know a very common toast phrase in Chinese which is "Gānbēi " literally meaning "dry glass " I could make an entire video just on Chinese drinking culture—I'd love to do that one day Just remember when they say gān bēi it literally means dry glass so you're basically toasting to emptying your glass You and the other person are going to finish it So if you're drinking something really strong like baijiu or white Chinese rice wine or something along those lines It's not a good idea to do that all the time just take small sips and you won 't need to say cheers But if you're serious then you'really drinking heavily Cheers is a great one to use So those are the 99 phrases That I would recommend you learn first If you're going to learn Chinese Now if you want to take this to the next level You can explore our courses in the description —especially the blueprint which will give you everything you need for advanced literacy and fluency in Chinese no matter your current level But if you'd like to invest a bit more in your Chinese learning without fully committing yet you can simply try the Kickstarter That’s a thousand common Chinese phrases for everyday life similar to the ones you just learned in today’s video—link also in the description All right guys hope that helps Watch this next and I'll see you in the next one